Sarah Sample-Reif

Past-President

Sarah is currently Chief Strategy Officer of Healthcare for Zivaro. The highlights of her career include 10+ years at Cerner managing implementations across multiple clients. The following decade, she spent building and growing Health IT divisions of $1B publicly traded staffing and consulting firms, across North America, and then as a healthcare overlay at NetApp.

Throughout her career, Sarah has repeatedly driven herself and the teams she works with to exceed high revenue quotas by leading with strategic initiatives within the healthcare market.  The focus of her team is to bridge the gap between project requirements and deadlines by helping clients purposefully find the best platform for long term patient care.

Sarah is currently Past President for the Colorado Chapter of HIMSS. If you are interested in learning more about participating in the chapter, please feel to reach out.

MariJo Rugh

President

MariJo Rugh is VP and CIO of UCHealth Affiliates. With over 25 years of healthcare IT leadership and management experience in academic, pediatric and community based health systems, MariJo has led multiple complex system implementations and is well versed in application portfolio management, integration of IT systems, clinical engineering, interoperability and virtual health delivery. MariJo is currently responsible for the Epic Community Connect program, the Project Management Office, Enterprise Resource Management, Integration and Interoperability and EHR Archive at UCHealth. MariJo has a Masters of Science in Medical Informatics from Northwestern University and a Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO) designation from College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).

Julia Rosen

President Elect

Julia currently serves as Chief Information & Technology Officer at Pera Healthcare, a Hospice Holding company that owns and operates hospices nationwide, including Colorado Palliative and Hospice Care in her home state. Prior to her CIO role at Pera, she spent 15 years in technology consulting and advised clients on all aspects of Healthcare IT, including EMRs, Data & Analytics, Cloud & Platform Modernization, Enterprise Architecture, IT Service Management, Revenue Cycle Integrity, and Information Security.  She previously served as CTO for Centura Health, a $5B health system in Colorado and Kansas, where she helped stand up technology for covid mass vaccination sites in the state of Colorado.  She is passionate about providing modern, seamless experiences for patients and families, as well as promoting women in technology.

She holds an MBA from University of Wisconsin, Madison and a BA from Williams College, and lives with her husband and a host of furry friends in Denver, CO. 

Ian Dalton

Treasurer

Ian Dalton currently serves as the Epic Resolute Application Manager for CommonSpirit’s Mountain Division. He has over a decade of experience in healthcare revenue cycle and IT, leading many large EMR implementations. Ian has a strong focus on creating a seamless and patient friendly financial experience and increasing efficiencies in revenue cycle to decrease cost and enhance the investment that organizations make into their EMR systems. He has held numerous roles at Centura Health starting in revenue cycle at Porter Hospital . Ian enjoys mentoring and coaching others to help them achieve their highest potential.  Outside of work Ian is involved in many volunteer and non-profit organizations and enjoys spending time obsessing over Formula One racing, exploring Colorado’s beautiful outdoors and fly fishing. Ian attended Weber State University in Ogden, UT majoring in Communications and Political Science.

Breanna Wong

Program Chair

Breanna Wong is the Principal Manager of Product Strategy for Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) solutions at Nuance, a Microsoft company. Passionate about empowering others, she serves as a course developer and adjunct faculty and on the boards of Colorado Medical Group Management Association, Colorado Health Administration Alumni Association, and the Cornell Club of Colorado. Breanna has performed HIPAA, reimbursement, and financial consulting, and run special projects and the affiliate IT program for a large healthcare system. She achieved her MBA - Healthcare Administration and MS in Finance from The University of Colorado and triple majored at Cornell University. Ask her about 14ers, traveling, volleyball, and current home improvement projects at your own discretion.

Kunle Obafemi

Sponsorship Chair

Kunle is currently a Solutions Architect for Sanity Solutions. He has over 20 years of experience in Healthcare IT both on the vendor and provider side.  His career started as a PACS Administrator for Community Health Systems in Wisconsin and grew over 6 years to managing the health network’s technology infrastructure (14 locations over 70 miles).

Since leaving CHN in 2011, he's worked for Aventura, Nutanix, Luma Health and now Sanity Solutions, architecting and supporting solutions to help his Healthcare customers improve processes and enabling them to provide better healthcare to their customers. 

Sara Dawson

Outreach Chair

Sara Dawson, an accomplished IT leader with 15 years of experience in Healthcare Information Technology, currently serves as the IT Director at HCA/Swedish Medical Center. Holding a Bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville and a Master's degree from the University of Denver, Sara specializes in optimizing technology within Healthcare IT. She has a proven track record of success in leadership, operational excellence, and organizational development, demonstrating a deep understanding of essential elements in EHR and Healthcare business integrations. Sara's ability to inspire and motivate the management team has earned her recognition, and she is celebrated for fostering creative and efficient work environments.

Heath Montgomery

Membership Chair

Heath is a seasoned sales executive with 18-years in the healthcare industry. Over the past five years, he has excelled as the ServiceNow Account Executive, representing the entire NOW platform across the regions of CO, NM, AZ, NV, and CA. Within this role, Heath has been instrumental in transforming healthcare workflow, leveraging ServiceNow's solutions to streamline IT processes, enhance application uptime, optimize service management, fortify security operations, mitigate risks, improve employee experiences,, and enhance clinical engineering operations. Prior to ServiceNow, Heath’s experience included various facets of healthcare, including revenue cycle management, pharmacy automation and software, as well as nine-plus years in sales roles focused on radiology and cardiology. In these positions, he effectively led cross-functional teams, demonstrating adeptness in collaboration and strategic leadership. Outside of work, Heath enjoys spending quality time with his family—a father to his three-year-old daughter and an always improving husband. His other free time is spent    on the golf course or on the water chasing bass and walleye.

Stephanie Broderick

Advocacy Chair

Stephanie is a healthcare IT leader with more than 30 years of healthcare IT experience.  As EVP of Strategic Initiatives for Clinical Architecture, Stephanie is responsible for strategic industry relationships and partnerships.  Stephanie is a member of the AMIA IPC, Advocacy Vice-Chair for HIMSS National, Advocacy Chair for Colorado HIMSS, and an active member of CommonWell Health Alliance, the American Hospital Association, and The Sequoia Project where she participates in the Data Usability, Taking Root, and Consumer Engagement Workgroups.  Stephanie has held senior leadership roles in software engineering, product management, IT, and consulting at Clinical Architecture, FDB, and Medi-Span.  Stephanie hobbies include spending time with family and her vizslas, deep sea fishing, travel, exploring Colorado's beautiful mountains on the back of an Indian Pursuit, sports of all sorts but especially football, hockey, and lacrosse.

Jose Guerrero-Baez, RN

Informatics Chair

Jose Guerrero Baez is a dedicated Clinical Nursing Informaticist with over 11 years of healthcare experience. He holds both a Master of Science in Nursing and a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of Colorado College of Nursing, with a focus on Healthcare Informatics. Jose is ANCC board certified in Informatics and has earned certifications in Epic Clinical Informatics.  In his current role as a Clinical Informatics Consultant at Cedars-Sinai, Jose leads major healthcare IT initiatives that optimize clinical workflows and integrate advanced health technologies.  He has a proven track record in clinical transformation leadership, workflow integration, and quality assurance. Jose’s experience includes working as a Clinical Nursing Informaticist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. He also served as a Pediatric Float Nurse, applying his clinical knowledge across multiple departments, including acute care and critical care settings. Beyond his professional work, Jose is actively engaged in the healthcare community. He serves on the boards of the Denver Regional Nightingale Association and the University of Colorado College of Nursing Alumni Association. He is a passionate advocate for the role of technology in improving healthcare delivery and is committed to advancing the nursing profession through innovation and continuous process improvement.

Minal Patel

Communications Chair

Minal is a healthcare IT leader with over 25 years of experience in healthcare organizations, management consulting and software start-up arenas within the provider and payer sectors. Minal has a strong focus on strategic and operational transformations to improve the overall health of our community. Minal serves as the Director of Affiliate Services for University of Colorado Health. Prior to UCHealth, Minal served as an Executive Leadership Advisor for Bluetree Network, IT Director at Centura Health and held various roles at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Minal has experience in operational and project management, program direction as well as IT strategy and planning. Minal holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida and a Master of Public Health (focused in Healthcare Management) from Emory University. In her spare time Minal enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, hiking, biking, running, basically anything outdoors and cooking.

Karla Arzola

Collaboration Chair

Karla Arzola is a Health Information Technology Executive with 20+ years of experience in delivering business solutions. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso, and a Master’s in Medical Informatics from Northwestern University. She is best known for her expertise in utilizing people, process, and technology as the key factors to drive transformation. Karla’s extensive experience in progressive leadership roles include Sr Director of Information Technology at Swedish Medical Center. During her tenure, she was nominated and was a finalist in the enterprise category for the 2022’s CIO of the Year Orbie Award. She earned this nomination due to her passion to develop and help people, and for her focus on building empowered, confident, and engaged teams. In her new role as CIO of Rocky Mountain Human Services, her focus is to develop partnerships, and drive initiatives that support Community Inclusion in Colorado. Karla serves as a board member of the National Association of Latino Healthcare Executive (NALHE) Denver Chapter, and the Colorado Technology Association.  

Kim Poma

Scholarship Chair

Kim Poma manages the IT Project Management department for HealthONE and serves as an adjunct instructor teaching healthcare IT classes. She has over 16 years of Healthcare IT experience with several different healthcare systems. Kim has held various roles including technical positions, EMR implementation and support, consultant roles, and project, portfolio and program management. She is excited about healthcare technology innovation and the possibilities it brings to healthcare. Kim earned her MBA from the University of Michigan-Flint and her BA in Computer Information Systems from Cleary University. She holds her PMP certification. Kim enjoys running, hiking, participating in triathlons, traveling, reading, drawing and hanging out with friends and family.

Natalie Tishkowski

Secretary

Natalie Tishkowski is a client executive at NetAPP.  Natalie previously served 2 years on the Colorado HIMSS board as Membership Chair and absolutely loves the Colorado HIMSS community.   She has spent over 15 years in healthcare technology for industry leaders such as GE Healthcare and FujiFilm Medical Systems and in information technology at World Wide Technology, AT&T, Verizon, NetApp and Nutanix.  She is passionate about helping organizations provide better patient care through the use of technology.  She has a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Oklahoma.  In her free time she enjoys spending time with her husband, watching her son’s theater productions and her daughter’s soccer games.

Sanjeev Sah

Member at Large

Sanjeev leads the Information Security Office and the Cyber Plan at Centura. Sanjeev is responsible for executing on the Cyber Plan to (1) sustain, enable and transform business and clinical capabilities (2) protect people, data and technology assets (3) provide assurance for disaster recovery and business continuity, and (4) comply with legal, regulatory and industry standards. Additionally, Sanjeev leads the IT & Cyber due diligence related to Mergers, Acquisitions and Affiliations.

With over twenty-four years of strategy, operations, technology and information security experience, Sanjeev joined Centura in November 2020. Sanjeev is passionate about extending, elevating, and enhancing the whole person care by transforming capabilities through technology and cyber innovation. Sanjeev previously served as Chief Information Security Officer at Medical University of South Carolina, Texas Children’s Hospital, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Amedisys Home Health & Hospice, and as the Head of Technology at Unum Group and Chief Technology Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana.

Sanjeev received a Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems Security from the University of Phoenix and completed the CIO programs at Educause and Deloitte. Sanjeev serves on the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council (HSCC) Cybersecurity Working Group (CWG) Executive Committee, HIMSS Colorado Board of Directors, and a member of American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and a member of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.

Cory Hussain

Physician Board Member at Large

Bio Coming Soon!

Howard Haile

Member at Large

Bio Coming Soon!

Christina Ebert

Member at Large

Christina is a seasoned Application Analyst specializing in Epic build for the PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) model. With over 11 years of experience, she has developed and implemented numerous complex, custom workflows that support the unique needs of the PACE community. Christina holds a Master’s degree in Data Science and a Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Administration with a focus on Information Technology from the University of Phoenix. Currently working as a consultant at Trinity Health based in Michigan, she has led multiple implementations, conversions, and go-lives, contributing to the growth and success of PACE programs across the United States.